Diversion To Urasha

After a tense and rather challenging walk through the palace’s clean white corridors, James and Crystaline finally entered the small little medical room. The room reminded James of a doctor’s surgery. Small, but deeply cleansed. Plain, but filled with an assortment of chemicals and utensils.

Upon entering the room, Crystaline had rather coldly instructed James to sit on the green chair located at the very centre of the room. The chair reminded James of the red seats in the reception room. Both seats were made from some kind of material that forced the body sitting on it to mould right into it - kinda like memory foam.

James felt nervous. He felt intimidated to be here, alone in this room, with this extremely attractive princess. Trying to rid his body of some of the tension within him, James pushed his knuckles down onto the seat, placing all his body’s weight onto them.

As Crystaline began to rummage through the medical cupboards, James desperately scraped the bottom of his brain for some sort of conversation starter with Crystaline. This silence was starting to feel too awkward. His lips trembled as they eventually parted. “So er…Crystaline, huh? That’s a er, it’s a nice name. My name’s James, James Joyce.”

Crystaline did not respond.

“It’s a nice palace you guys have here. I’ve never er, I’ve never seen...”

“Take off your shirt,” Crystaline interrupted, taking James aback.

“Er, a what sorry?”

Crystaline turned around, walking towards James with a bunch of medical supplies in her hands. “I said, take off your shirt.” She pointed down to James’ chest. “You’re bleeding.”

James shook his head, trying to shake the sense back into his brain. Of course, he was bleeding! His chest was in fricking agony, for goodness sake! It was just, this woman, that soft voice of hers, it had caught him by surprise. Not wanting to waste any more of Crystaline’s time, James whipped off his shirt. His upper body still managed to look impressive, despite the blood all over his chest. As Crystaline took his shirt from him, James could only conclude that the little grin she gave him was one of either smugness or seduction. It was hard to tell which.

Crystaline held a water-soaked cloth to James’ head, and began to rub his wound. It fricking hurt. James fought hard not to show the pain on his face. He didn’t want to show himself up around this beautiful woman. Once she’d stopped cleaning his head wound, James could feel Crystaline’s breath on his ears.

Ever so gently, she brushed her fingers through his hair, her lips pressing against his ears. “If you thought that was bad, wait till we get to your chest.”

As Crystaline worked the cloth all over his chest, James didn’t know whether to cry out in pleasure or pain. It hurt, it really did hurt whenever the cloth rubbed against his damaged flesh. Yet at the very same time, Crystaline was stunning, and the thought of her touching him, massaging a cloth over him was too much to take - in a good way! James felt relieved when Crystaline was finally done cleaning him. He knew how to react to nothing, at least.

The moment of nothing wasn’t to last for very long, for Crystaline was already holding up her next piece of equipment - a small bottle, filled with florescent blue liquid.

First, Crystaline rubbed the substance over James’ head wound. Whatever the hell was in that stuff was definitely working. James could no longer feel any little remnants of pain. Instead, the pain had made way for pleasure. When Crystaline began working the fluid over his chest, James let out a pleasurable gasp. He couldn’t help it - this stuff was amazing! Or was it Crystaline? Was she that good at massaging? Every time that her dainty little hands touched his skin, James could feel pleasurable little tingles prickling his entire body. James felt disappointed when Crystaline was finally done healing him. Part of him was hoping for a third stage of healing. When he looked down at his perfectly healed chest, James realised that a third stage of healing would never take place. “Wow,” he said, awestricken. “What is that stuff?”

Crystaline returned the little blue bottle to its appropriate home. “Healing fluid,” she eventually answered.

“So, let me get this straight, you guys, you never have to worry about getting injured? You never die from injuries?”

To James’ surprise, Crystaline’s expression darkened. Instead of appearing proud of her planet’s ability to heal, she appeared troubled, deeply troubled. “The healing fluid can only heal surface wounds. Wounds of the skin and flesh. What you’re suggesting is a miracle, and miracles, they do not exist.”

Not wanting to be a pessimist, James decided to object, even though he already regretted raising the issue which appeared to bring so much emotional turmoil to Crystaline. “How do you know? I like to think...” James could not continue on, for a knock on the door distracted him and Crystaline. James watched as she answered the door, leaving the room for a moment to talk to whoever was stood outside. James decided that it was best to not leave his chair, he didn’t want to upset Crystaline even further. A few more minutes of waiting had passed, and finally, Crystaline returned to the room, throwing James something grey, something fabric.

“Here, you’ll need this,” she said, grabbing hold of James’ old blood ridden t-shirt. She threw it into a machine of some sort. The machine illuminated purple as James’ old t-shirt was burnt away. Crystaline had passed him a spare, but how?

“How did you get this?” he asked, gingerly sniffing the t-shirt, as an awful thought hit him. “Hey er, this isn’t Phil’s is it? My captain’s?” It would be too typical of Phil to donate his t-shirt. The last thing James wanted was to be stuck in Phil’s sweaty clothing.

“That was one of our guards. We have guards tending to your ship as we speak. Apparently, my father thought that you might all feel a little more comfortable in your own clothes. If you thought you were leaving this planet anytime soon, then you’d be wrong, unfortunately.”

James felt fully satisfied that the light grey top was his. It smelt clean, unworn, and he put the t-shirt on over his tingling body. “How did your guards know whose stuff was whose?”

Crystaline shrugged uncaringly, seemingly none the wiser than James. “That’s not important right now. I need to take you to my father and the rest of your humans.” Without uttering out another word, Crystaline opened the door and was gone from the medical room. This left James no other option, he had to follow the aloof princess.

Whilst James had been away with Crystaline getting healed up, Lottie and the rest of the human team had been led to the palace restaurant by King Cryston and his son, Crystos.

As she entered the crowded venue, Lottie couldn’t help but notice how different this restaurant looked and felt compared to the rest of the palace. For a start, the noisy place was colourful, filled with an assortment of swanky lights. The walls were bright red and purple. The room was large, with its exits and its entrances hidden between the many round silver tables and stages. Lottie looked up towards the long silver poles scattered across the room. Most of the poles were surrounded by crowds of people, perverts taking a good look at the half naked women dancing around them. This place was disgusting, and Lottie was already beginning to dislike this planet. Or to be more precise, the people in it.

With the loud thumping music pulsating its way through the entire room, it was quite a surprise to Lottie that she was still able to hear the king as he continued to drivel on about meaningless nonsense to an unfortunate Phil. Lottie almost wanted to laugh sympathetically in Phil’s favour. Sadly though, the vast crowds of people passing her, and accidentally bumping into her made it impossible for her to laugh. She felt too uncomfortable to laugh.

The king eventually led everyone to a large, round silver table. Adding further to Lottie’s feelings of uneasiness, the table was not empty either. Another golden eyed Urashan was sat at it, staring icily into the space in front of her. This woman was also very beautiful for her age. Her long dark hair reminded Lottie of the princess. What was her name? Crystaline, that was it. Maybe the woman was the Queen of Urasha? No, wait. That wouldn’t work. The queen was dead, Lottie was sure of it. She could remember reading about it. Maybe this Urashan family had a reason to be so icily cold, after all?

Before instructing the group to take a seat, the king firstly acknowledged his female relative. “Ah, Crystanaphy, my dear! These humans have gotten themselves into a little spot of bother. One of them is being healed by Crystaline as we speak. He will be joining us very shortly.”

The woman’s stare was cold, uncaring as she forced out her short response. “So I heard,” was all she said.

The king and everyone else sat around the table, with the three Urashans on one section, and the five humans on the other. Only one seat remained vacant.

“So,” King Cryston began. “You have all met my only son, Crystos. I would also like to introduce to you my sister, Crystanaphy. Well…I say sister, but only through marriage.” The king noticed the waiter stood patiently by the table. “A drink anyone?”

“Sure,” responded Phil. “What would you recommend?”

“What would I recommend? Well, my favourite drink is a fruity delight called the apocoli. Would you like to try an apocoli, Captain Harper?”

“Well, if it’s what you’d recommend, then who am I to knock it?”

The king smiled, seemingly content. “And the others?”

“They’ll have the same as me,” Phil answered for them.

“Marvellous! Waiter, get each of us an apocoli, please...and get an extra one for the injured boy.” The king turned to look at Phil. “Crystaline should be finished with him soon.”

The waiter bowed to his king, disappearing through the throng of people.

“So then, Captain, I’ve had the pleasure of talking to you, but now I’d like you to introduce me to the rest of your human team. I don’t believe I’ve ever met any of them? No?”

Phil cleared his throat, not seeming one hundred percent comfortable with this situation. Nevertheless, he answered the king’s question, introducing each of his team members to the man and his family. He introduced Lottie last. “And last, but by no means least, this here is Lottie. She’s a fine young woman. We’re lucky to have her on board.”

Lottie hated having the king’s eyes on her. There was something about the way that he was looking at her that made her feel very uncomfortable. To Lottie’s horror, the king took her hand, and gave it a long peck with his ice-cold lips.

“Lottie,” the king purred. “So young, so beautiful. It is such a pleasure to meet you.”

As soon as the opportunity arose, Lottie removed her hand from the king’s grasp. He was obviously a freak.

Looking completely self satisfied, the king turned back to Phil. “And what about the injured boy?” he asked,

“His name’s James. He’s on his first mission, just like Lottie is.”

“Well, young James seems like a brave boy. He’s clearly not afraid to get his hands dirty, is he?”

Phil cocked his head to one side, irritated by the king, protective towards James. “What makes you say that?”

“Well, his injuries speak for themselves, don’t they?”

“He was injured trying to fix a part of our ship, not through combat.”

The king was quiet for a moment. “Still, he’s clearly not afraid to get stuck into a dangerous task, is he? I like that. I could use someone like him here on Urasha.”

To Lottie’s relief, James finally made an appearance. As her best friend took the seat next to her, Lottie couldn’t help but admit that Crystaline had done a very good job on him. There wasn’t even a single cut or scratch left on James’ body.

As the waiter arrived with everyone’s drinks, it surprised Lottie when Crystaline and her father left the table, taking themselves to the most discreet corner of the room which they could find. What were they up to? It didn’t look as if they were having a conversation between father and daughter. Instead, it appeared as if they were discussing some sort of business deal, or something along those lines.

Lottie’s eyes glanced across to Crystos. He looked suddenly tense. Angry maybe, that he wasn’t included in the private conversation?

The king and Crystaline soon returned, only, it looked very much like Crystaline wouldn’t be joining them, after all. She walked off, with a rather tense expression of her own. Perhaps she was off to seal that all important business arrangement that her and her father were planning?

As the king retook his seat, a heavy silence loomed briefly over the table. Then, deciding to give everyone a heart attack, Crystos slammed his fists hard against the table, sending small splatters of drink onto everyone’s faces. He got up from the table and left. What was his beef?

Lottie’s eyes flitted back to the king. His hands were trembling, and he looked guilty as hell. Lottie watched as King Cryston’s shaking hands took a hold of the fragile drink glass. He held it to his mouth, and took a sip from it, as if hoping that this drink would help to ease whatever storm was going on inside of him. The drink appeared to have little positive effect on the king as he attempted to scramble out his sentence.

“I’m sorry for that...that interruption.” The king stroked his glass as if he hoped to gain some degree of comfort from doing this. “My son...he’s a little overprotective towards his sister.”

To Lottie’s surprise, Phil’s unconcerned, yet calm voice reached out to the king. “I think all brothers are a little overprotective towards their sisters. We all want to protect the ones we love.”

Phil’s words appeared to be of little help to the king. If anything, they appeared to have done more harm than good. Phil’s next choice of words, on the other hand, seemed to fix whatever had broken inside the king. Phil had moved the topic of conversation along, reasonably suggesting that the king explained the terms of this ‘agreement’ that he had been meaning to discuss.

“Ah yes, that,” the king had said as he continued to caress his drink glass. The confidence was coming back to him now. “Yes, let’s not forget why we are here. Your ship is in so such state to fly, and you wish to get to Nebowska? To help the unfortunate Nebowskans? Is that correct?”

Phil nodded. The king was spot on.

“Well, we can fix your ship. We may not have ships quite like yours, but we have the resources to ensure that your Earthship is up and running again.”

Phil crossed his arms, leaning back into the silver chair behind him. “Great, we would appreciate that immensely. Thank you.”

The king swirled his pale bony forefinger around and around in his drink. He watched as his movements created patterns in the apocoli. “Of course, such resources would cost me dearly. As much as I’d like to offer you a gift of kindness, I can’t afford to. That’s not to say that I’m not prepared to help you. It’s just, well, I would need something in return from you.”

Phil rolled his eyes. “Okay, so what is it you want from us?”

“There is a stone, a very important stone to my people.”

“And what about this stone?”

The king released his hands from his drink, pointing towards James. “You’ve seen the work that Crystaline has done on the boy. Look at the way she’s managed to completely heal him. Well, this stone will expand those healing capabilities of ours greatly, and we’re yet to get our hands on it.” King Cryston took another sip of his drink. “It’s not located within the city.”

Phil took a sip of his own apocoli. “It’s great that you guys can heal and all that, it really is. I can’t see what we can offer you though. I mean, if the stone isn’t located in the city, then how do you expect us to help you find it? Because that is what you want from us, right?”

“How very shrewd of you, Captain, really. You are however wrong about one thing, you can help us to retrieve the healing stone. Yes, it is not within the city, it is however on this planet, in the wild lands, not too far away from the city.”

“But your wilderness is highly dangerous. I’m not sending any one of my team members out there.”

“You say that, Captain Harper. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s admirable really. You’re so compassionate towards your team. I respect that, I really do. You can’t however wrap them up in safety. Most of them are trained for these sorts of occasions, are they not? Furthermore, if I felt that this situation was life threatening, then why would I send both my son and my daughter out to accompany you? You see, Captain Harper, my daughter is quite the skilled navigator. A map was left by our dear ancestors, and my daughter knows the map by heart. She and her brother know how to reach the stone. They just need a few more numbers, that’s all.”

“Okay,” Phil said, leaning further back into his chair, his frustrations building. “So, if you’ve known about this healing stone for a while then why have you waited until now to get it? I don’t see why you couldn’t just get your guards to help? You have plenty of them?”

The king sighed. Phil’s point was a fair one. “It is true, I have neglected the stone, yes. Perhaps I have just been too busy to really focus my energy on getting the stone. I am however, an opportunist, and well, I see this as an incredible opportunity for us both. Like I said, I can’t afford to just hand out my resources to you, and not to sound too harsh, Captain, but I don’t see any other alternative for you.”

Phil sat quietly for a moment, as if he were weighing everything up in his mind. Then, finally, he spoke. “Okay, fine, how many of us do you need?”

“Oh, just a few. No offence, but some of your team members do look a little fragile. I would suggest the boy - James, yourself, and the other young man. The rest of your team can stay here in the palace, ensure that we keep our end of the bargain.”

Phil shook his head grimly. “I’m not happy about this.”

“I know it is less than ideal, but I really don’t see any other option. If I could afford...”

“Fine,” Phil interrupted, obviously not wanting to listen to anymore of the king’s nonsense. “We’ll help you to retrieve your stone, whilst you fix our ship. By the time we get back, the ship will be fixed? Right?”

“Right,” the king agreed, seemingly happy with the outcome of the conversation. “Ideally we’ll have you all set off as soon as possible. You do, however realise, that we do not allow your human weapons on our planet. So, before you set off, we will need you three to undergo a day’s training with the sworshas.”

“Sworshas?” James’ lips opened for the first time in this conversation.

“Yes, weapons of ours. Tomorrow, you three will meet Crystanaphy here in this restaurant before midday. She will then transport you to the training area. You’ll all be able to start the hunt for the healing stone once you are all ready. In the mean time, I can see that you have all had a long day. I want you all fit and ready for this mission, so it is important to me that you all get adequate rest. Come, to the sleeping rooms.”

The corridor of sleeping rooms reminded James of a hotel. Doors flanked the long, winding walkway, whilst the many lights glowed dimly, as if inviting people to come and sleep in the rooms they each guarded.

As the group navigated past more and more turns and corners, James found himself slipping behind the others. Unlike them, he was interested to take in his surroundings, causing him to slow his pace considerably. James was completely halted on the spot when he heard a strange noise. As he listened for the source of the groaning, James realised that it was coming from a door, one which was slightly ajar. Feeling curious, James crept towards the door, slowly leaning his head towards its little opening. He was shocked by the sight which awaited him. There, in that room, was none other than Crystaline. She was not alone. She was locked in a sexual embrace with a much older Urashan man. This did not look right. A woman like Crystaline with a man like him? Something about this was wrong. James recoiled away from the door as soon as he heard Lottie’s voice.

“James? What are you doing?”

“Nothing. I er, I heard a noise, so I thought I’d check it out.” Before Lottie could make her way over to the door to check out the mysterious noise for herself, James walked away from the room, finishing his explanation with a whisper. “Turns out it was nothing though. Must have been my imagination playing tricks on me.” As James and Lottie caught up with the others, James wondered if Crystaline had heard him talking to Lottie just now.

It only took the king another couple of minutes to lead the humans to their rooms. Once outside the six rooms, James had immediately noticed the pile of suitcases bundled up in the centre of the corridor. Earlier on, Crystaline had explained that the Urashan guards had retrieved the belongings of everyone from the Earthship. Obviously, they didn’t know who was staying in what room, or whose stuff was whose. Otherwise the suitcases would be in the rooms already.

Once inside his room for the night, James placed his bulky suitcase on the centre of the shaggy red carpet. Again, he decided not to unpack anything. What was the point? He wasn’t going to be staying in this luxurious palace for long, was he? James scanned the golden walls of the room. Even the furniture here was mostly gold, with the massive round bed being the only exception, sharing the softness and the colour of the carpet beneath it. James wondered over to what he could only assume was the washing area. The area had no door, but it was sectioned off by half a wall. The toilet was unusual. It was golden, and it resembled a bulky square step, raised thirty or so centimetres from the floor. Above it, there was a small hole in the wall, and attached to the side of the toilet was a piece of string with a rubber handle attached to it. Wanting to ensure that this was in fact the toilet, James tugged on the string, watching as the water was released from the hole, gushing into the golden toilet. You wouldn’t be able to flush these toilets whilst sitting down, that was for sure. Although the very image of Phil going to the toilet was completely and utterly grotesque, James found amusement from the image when he pictured Phil stupidly flushing himself with all that water. Would the man ever be that dumb? James hoped so, sniggering away as he stared at the jagged silver mirror in front of him. Urashans had mirrors too, go figure. They also had washing basins with running water. This planet was freakishly alike Earth in so many ways.

After readying himself for bed, James’ sleepy eyes scanned the walls for any sign of the light switch. The warm orangey light had already been on before he had entered the room. Yet surely, a light would need an off switch? Just as he was about to give up on turning off the light, James found a small purple button near to the small round window. He pressed it, and out went the light.

James waited for his eyes to adjust to the darkness, and then he scampered over to the humungous round bed, pulling open its silky red covers as he climbed into it. James’ body immediately sank right into the luscious warm material. This had to be by far the comfiest bed that he had ever slept in!

As the bed continued to hug his body, James could feel that his eyelids were feeling surprisingly droopy. He had so much to think about, yet his brain just would not let him process a thing, sending his mind into complete darkness.

For a while, James just lay there, enjoying the nothingness all around him. Unfortunately for James, this peaceful nothingness wasn’t to last for very long. James watched, horrified, as an all too familiar scene began to unfold right in front of him.

James ran his fingers through the searing hot sand. He mustered the strength in his body to stand. The glitters of ash fell all around him like snowflakes. That heavy rumbling sound, those cruel, callous little voices rang in his ears incessantly.

James began to navigate his way across the landscape, walking around the many lava pools and boulders.

“JAMES!”

James turned on his heels, running towards the blood curdling scream. As James turned a sharp corner, he tripped and fell onto his hands and knees. There she was, that woman.

The injured woman staggered about for a while, clutching onto the side of her tight black costume. Then, without warning, she fell face-down onto the ground. James got up and ran towards her.

Once he had reached the woman, James stood over her for a while, watching her intently. Where had he seen this woman before? She looked familiar somehow. Those curves, that costume, that long dark hair? James placed his hands on the woman’s shoulders and turned her over. Oh my god, Crystaline! The princess!

“Crystaline, wake up!” James tried to shuffle her lifeless body awake. His actions were to no avail, Crystaline was dead.

“JAMES! HELP ME!”

There was that scream again - Lottie’s!

James immediately left Crystaline, running as fast as his legs could carry him towards the cries of his best friend. As he ran, he could hear Lottie’s screams getting more and more louder, more and more frequent, until eventually, he saw her. Lottie stood before several orange flames, and she was surrounded by creatures. Frail, wicked looking, black winged beings. They looked like demons.

As James continued to run towards Lottie, he watched as the creatures began to slash at his best friend, tearing away chunks of her flesh, and sending it flying into the fireballs behind her. Lottie’s cries were filled with such a ferocious agony, and before James could reach her, he was forced to watch his best friend being dragged into the flames, once again.